Purple Lawns

Dina Zvi-Riklis (56 min. 1998)

Wednesday, April 14, Siegal College

Based on a story by Savion Liebrecht. Yael is a dancer and a teacher of movement at an ultra-orthodox school in Bnei Brak, and Shlomit is a painter and graphic artist. The two young women, friends since childhood, share a spacious apartment in the heart of Tel Aviv. Their high rent forces them to take in a third flatmate, Malka, a mysterious ultra-orthodox woman, who becomes part of their lives. Her strange insistence on living with two secular women touches Yael's heart and arouses Shlomit's suspicions. Yael, who grew up motherless, is drawn to Malka, who appears to be calm and in control. Shlomit is jealous of the relationship that forms between the two and begins to follow Malka. Slowly, with many suspenseful moments and various twists and turns, Malka's secret is discovered. The orthodox woman's wretched fate moves both young women and they become determined to help her.

The rift between the secular and religious worlds, the prejudices, the mutual ignorance and the resultant mistrust and suspicion are at the heart of PURPLE LAWNS. The film tells the story of women who decide to take fate into their own hands. Initially the possibility of any connection between them seems completely impossible. Yet, as the plot develops, they undergo changes that enable them to accomplish something and prove that the sisterhood of women is strongest of all.